Creating an Awesome Home Office Plan

Good home office plans can influence how successful you are while working from home. This means having the resources to get the job done, minimizing distractions and being comfortable.

Home office plans go beyond a floor plan for your office furniture and equipment(although some are mentioned below). You need to take into consideration the following elements:

A Door

You need a door so you can shut it. It will help you keep the distractions on one side and a productive environment on the other.

This isn’t automatic. Your family needs to know what that shut door means. And they need to come to an understanding of when it’s OK to knock on it. Which is something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself. Don’t let me tell you know what’s important enough to merit your attention.

The door also sets a boundary that separates your office from the rest of the house. It reinforces the concept that the office and what’s inside is for your business — and not for school projects or building forts. (Filing cabinets look like the building blocks of a good foundation…)

NC-17 Rating

I’m not talking about downloading and watching porn in your home office. But you should consider banning the children from your workspace. Simply because it discourages from “borrowing” any of your supplies or equipment.

Dedicated Equipment

All home offices require a computer, printer and phone. Those items also are essential parts of most modern homes. But it’s not a good idea to use them for business and family. You don’t want to keep client information on the same computer your teenager is using for chat (and possibly collecting malware).

And not having to wait for coworkers to print their documents first is one of the luxuries of working at home. Having your own printer prevents the arguments about what is more important: a proposal for a new client or a term paper on Shakespeare.

A Good Desk

What that looks like is up to you. A large surface area is important to some workers. Others just need enough room for a monitor, keyboard and mouse pad. You need to decide what works for you.

Accessibility

Your home office plans should make sure needed resources are easy to access:

Line of sight: You should be able to see everything you need. Put away files and books that you rarely use. Make good use of bookshelves and vertical files.

Reachability: Place your most commonly used items within arms length from your keyboard. I’m talking about your phone, notepads, earphones and (perhaps) printer.

“Within a roll”: OK, maybe you don’t need the printer so close that it needs to be right beside you. Making sure it’s close enough to your chair so that you can get to it with one push — or “roll”. It sounds lazy, but it honestly saves time.

Filing System

Filing cabinets are good for material you don’t need very often. These are the archives of your business. Use bookshelves and desktop vertical file holders for current materials. Make the things you often refer to or add to handy.

You can organize alphabetically, priority, type of work or whatever makes the most sense to you. Just don’t let it pile up.

Part of the problem, especially with me, if the office gets extremely cluttered it becomes mentally uncomfortable. I have papers here, keyboards there, random things over here. My office doubles as the storage closet basically.

Find an area to work that is organized or at least low on the clutter can go a long way in your motivation. It’s very depressing when you look around and you can’t see anything past the mess!

I think even in the smallest of offices you can have a few plants here and there. I definitely agree about trying to get natural light too. When it’s a nice day outside and you have a window – turn the lights off and open the blinds!